First Edition Cycling News for September 8, 2004Edited by Jeff Jones and John Stevenson High-speed Petacchi takes another low-speed Vuelta stage
The Vuelta continues to be raced at a relatively slower pace than in recent editions, in part due to the more relaxed starts and in part due to the headwinds, which were again in evidence in today's fourth stage from Soria to Zaragoza. Despite the 800m drop from the start to the finish, the riders only averaged 38 km/h because of the strength of the wind. Four riders did manage to get clear of the bunch after 30 km: Xavier Florencio (Relax), David Fernandez (Paternina), Iñaki Isasi (Euskaltel) and Julien Laidoun (Ag2R), but could only build a three minute lead and were caught with 31 km to go by a nervous peloton. There were several crashes during the stage, with Trentin, Hamilton, Spezialetti, Cunego and Artetxe all hitting the ground at some stage, but all riders managed to finish within a minute and a half of the winner. T-Mobile and Fassa Bortolo combined to set a high tempo in the run into Zaragoza and once again Alessandro Petacchi was delivered in textbook fashion by Guido Trenti to within 150m of the line. Petacchi rode a strong sprint to beat an improving Erik Zabel by half a wheel with Oscar Freire taking third. There was little change to the race lead, although Benoit Joachim actually increased his advantage on GC by taking third (2 seconds) in the first intermediate sprint. Vuelta Stage 4 - Full
results, report & photos, Live
report The Matt White incidentBy Martin Hardie in Zaragoza Cyclingnews caught up with Matt White (Cofidis) in the crush at the finish after stage 4 and asked him what he was doing with his solo effort along the service road that paralleled the run into Zaragoza. Matt explained that he was trying to drag Stuart O'Grady up through the bunch when there was a bit of a whiplash and he got "flicked off towards the right hand side of the road with nowhere to go. I took the service road entry and followed it along but for the life of me couldn't find my way back to the main road and the bunch." There was a fence blocking any attempt to bunny hop the median strip dividing the main and service roads and White had to wait for quite a while before he could get back into the bunch and the congratulatory welcome of Txente Garcia Acosta and Scott Sunderland. Evans well placedBy Martin Hardie in Zaragoza Before the start of Stage 4, Cyclingnews caught up with Cadel Evans (T-Mobile) and asked him about the wet finish to yesterday's third stage in Soria. "Yesterday...phew...pretty tough at the finish hey? You look at the profile and you think 'oh yeah, a little hill'...a little hill like that and you add a couple of wet roads, narrow, gaps, some cobbles, a couple of punctures...it changes it a bit. No, I was happy to get through that without losing any time. "I got caught behind the wrong wheel in the sprint," Evans added. "Vino had a go with about 800 metres out, he got caught pretty quickly as there was one strong guy from Kelme (Carlos Garcia Quesada) with Valverde still there at the finish and he brought him back. I was there following the wrong wheel and when you have to hit the brakes on a climb like that at the finish...well after that its over." Regarding Valverde, Cadel said, "On those finishes when it is a little bit uphill he is incredible and also he doesn't seem to slow down when it starts raining. The rest of us, our legs go hard, but [I saw him do it] in Valencia as well and in the Basque Country." Asked whether we could read anything into Monday's selection, Evans said, "I think it was a pretty good indicator for the first week because it was pretty tough. You really had to have good position in the last few kilometres to be able to finish in the first 15 or so...and have good legs, so the fact that some people may have lost a few seconds, well it doesn't say they are bad, but I think most of the favourites were there. "Heras was third, Garzelli was fifth or sixth, Cunego was ninth. I am actually interested to see what Garzelli does because he looks serious for the GC. I think they came here with a plan, he is taking advantage of the situation that a lot of people are not paying him much attention right now...I am going to be paying attention to him." Vuelta stone thrower arrestedSpanish police have arrested a 26 year old British man who threw a stone in front of the peloton during the third stage of the Vuelta between Burgos and Soria. The incident happened at Salas de Los Infantes after 56 km of the stage. The man, clad as a mountain biker complete with bike and video camera, threw a five kilogram stone in front of the bunch as it was descending at full speed. Scott Sunderland (Alessio-Bianchi) witnessed it in his diary entry yesterday: "Some nutter threw a 20cm square stone onto the road, right in front of the peloton as we were doing 60km/h downhill coming into a town! Vinokourov hit it straight on and smashed both carbon wheels! The stone kept rolling and the whole of the peloton was skidding around trying to avoid it. Vino did an incredible job to keep it up; surely he'll be counting his blessings tonight. It could have been catastrophic." The man was taken away by police and charged with endangering traffic. Double points makes World Cup cliffhangerBy Kristy Scrymgeour
The women's World Cup concludes this Sunday with the Rund um die Nürnberger Altstadt in Nürnberger, Germany, where Oenone Wood and her Australian team will fight one last time to defend the jersey. A new obstacle popped up for the team recently when they realized that the final round carried double points and therefore that Wood's convincing lead was not yet enough. The rule change was announced in February this year in the UCI's Official News Bulletin N° 39, sent to all national federations and UCI-registered trade teams. But perhaps it's not surprising it was initially missed. According to the UCI it can be found in Chapter XV, art. 2.15.004 on page 106. The majority of riders and directors were therefore a bit startled when they learnt about it recently. With 150 points up for grabs for the winner of the final round, Wood can be beaten by Mirjam Melchers (Farm Frites/Hartol), who sits 99 behind her after round eight, Zoulfia Zabirova (Let's Go Finland) - 110 points behind and Petra Rossner (Nürnberger), now 121 points behind after her win at Rotterdam. Of the three, the Australians are most concerned about Rossner, who displayed her excellent form last weekend and whose team will be aiming to win this race in the hometown of their sponsor, but are considering the new obstacle as a challenge. Merckx back in the saddle
Riders, spectators and officials alike did a double take at the start of the final stage of the Tour of Britain on Sunday, with a very fit-looking Eddy Merckx in attendance. The cycling legend looks in better shape than he has for many years, and was a welcome guest of honour in London. Shane Stokes caught up with the king of Belgian cycling for a couple of minutes during the criterium. Cyclingnews: Eddy, you are looking very fit. Are you doing many kilometres at the bike at the moment? Eddy Merckx: Yes, I ride often. I get out on the bike when I can. CN: You are here at the end of the Tour of Britain. What is your impression of the event? EM: I am impressed by the race, especially by the number of spectators. There are a lot of people here, watching the riders and cheering them on. That is very nice, and good for the event itself. To have a Tour of Britain is very important and the support of the crowd is a big plus. It's official: Rogers is 2003 World Time Trial ChampionThe UCI has announced that Australian Michael Rogers (Quick.Step-Davitamon) is the official 2003 World Time Trial Champion in the wake of David Millar's admission to using EPO to win the event in Hamilton last October. Millar informed the UCI that he will not be contesting his disqualification from the event, which opened the way for Rogers to be awarded the title World Champion as well as the gold medal and the rainbow jersey. The silver medal will be attributed to German Uwe Peschel (Gerolsteiner), while the bronze will also go to another German Gerolsteiner rider, Michael Rich. Rogers has had several near misses at the World Time Trial Championships over the years, although his brother Deane won gold in that discipline at the Junior World's in 1994. Mick finished second at the Junior World's in 1997, beaten by just 1.12 seconds by Germany's Thorsten Hiekmann. He achieved a similar feat at the U23 World's in Treviso in 1999, where he was again beaten into the silver medal position by 1.56 seconds by Spain's Jose Ivan Gutierrez. In Plouay in 2000, Rogers finished third in the U23 TT, this time by over a minute after both Evgeni Petrov (Russia) and Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland) finished ahead of him. Rogers' belated 2003 victory will only give him three weeks in the jersey, as this year's Elite Men's World TT Championships will be ridden on September 29 in Bardolino, Italy. His achievement marks the first time that an Australian elite rider has won a World Championship on the road. CSC farewells YatesThe CSC team has said a complimentary farewell to directeur sportif Sean Yates, who is leaving the team after the Vuelta a España to work with the Discovery Channel team (currently known as US Postal) in 2005. Yates was one of the top super-domestiques in his days as a rider, and picked up a few stage wins along the way in a career that included a stint at Motorola alongside a young rider called Lance Armstrong. "Sean has been a skilled and very popular sports director on our team," said CSC boss Bjarne Riis in a team statement. "We would have liked to keep him on board, but I fully respect him seeking new challenges at Lance Armstrong's team. We're known as a team of strong leaders, and obviously that makes our employees attractive to other teams. I'll allow myself to be proud of the fact, that Sean will now be working for another top team after having been a part of ours." Before joining CSC Yates had a run of lousy luck as directeur sportif of the Linda McCartney and iTeamNOVA squads, both of which folded for lack of finding. When Bjarne Riis called to offer him a job at CSC he had been working as a gardener for six months. "I have had a great time at Team CSC, and I am happy to have been part of the fantastic team Bjarne Riis has created," said Yates. "I am also very grateful to Bjarne for taking me on as sports director two years ago. I'm leaving one of the best teams in the World, and I would like to thank the whole team for the time we've spent together. At Team CSC I have learned a lot, which I hope to be able to use for the rest of my career, and I am looking forward to finishing my time at CSC with a great Vuelta." Related article: Sean Yates interview, January 2003 Postal brings Tour top guns to T-MobileIt's a sign of the strength in depth that the US Postal team has built over the last several years that it will be able bring to the T-Mobile International (September 12) seven of the riders that took part in its domination of the 2004 Tour de France while still in the catbird seat at the Vuelta a España. Lance Armstrong will be the star attraction for the predicted half a million spectators that will line the streets of San Francisco for the race, though it's unlikely Armstrong will contest the win. In previous years he has been content to work for one of his top Tour lieutenants, and at the T-Mobile this year he'll be able to choose from George Hincapie, Jose Luis Rubiera, Olympic time trial silver medallist Viatcheslav Ekimov, Pavel Padrnos, Benjamin Noval and Tour fifth place Jose Azevedo. The team will be rounded out by Michael Creed. Hincapie, who won here in 2001, says the Postie to watch this year is Rubiera, known in the team as Chechu. "Chechu is really riding well", said Hincapie in a recent interview. But Postal won't have it all its own way. Two more previous T-Mobile winners, Charles Dionne and Chris Horner (both Webcor Builders) will be looking to repeat their success. They'll be joined on the start line by two more top US riders, Olympic TT bronze medallist Bobby Julich (CSC) and Levi Leipheimer (Rabobank). European stars at the T-Mobile will include two Paris-Roubaix winners, Magnus Backstedt and Andrea Tafi, both of Alessio-Bianchi and Alex Zulle (Phonak). The T-Mobile International, presented by BMC Software will begin at 7 a.m. on Sunday, September 12, with a 56-mile women's race. The 108-mile men's race rolls out at 10 a.m. Both races feature climbs up Fillmore and Taylor Streets. No action against Calle yetThe Colombian Cycling Federation has issued a statement apparently in answer to speculation about sanctions against Colombian Olympic track team rider Maria Luisa Calle, who was stripped of her points race bronze medal after testing positive for a stimulant. In the statement the Colombian points out that any speculation about Calle's sanction is just personal opinion as it has not yet been officially notified of Calle's positive test by the IOC or the Colombian Olympic Committee and therefore cannot yet take any action. Only hours left to join Vuelta Fantasy game
Grand prize: Orbea frameset painted in Euskaltel-Euskadi team colours Daily prizes: 21 pairs of Spiuk silver Nitro glasses, sponsored by DPM Sports Runner-up prizes: * More prizes will be added as the Vuelta progresses. Enter now and you still have as much chance as any other team manager of winning the Orbea frameset in Euskaltel-Euskadi colours. All you have to do is make sure you select your stage selections for stages 1-6 before stage 6 begins. For more info see the Fantasy Vuelta rules. To play all you need to do is pick a team of 15 riders to race and select 9 riders each day during the tour. It's a great way to follow the Vuelta. To register your teams go to fantasy.cyclingnews.com. Good luck!
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